The five day summit which opened yesterday will focus on investment opportunities in Africa, particularly in infrastructure development, tourism and other areas such as energy, manufacturing, housing and capital market.

Andrew Young, Rev. Jesse Jackson and actor Chris Tucker are some of the prominent business leaders attending the summit. Delegates will get a chance to visit Tanzania’s tourist attractions of Serengeti, Ngorongoro and Zanzibar.

Tanzania Petroleum Development Corp (TPDC) recently opened the bidding process for hyrdrocarbon exploration in six blocks situated in the interior of the country. Energy and oil companies are invited to submit their offers to explore these areas by December 3.

What are your thoughts about this move to invite more companies to prospect oil and gas in the country? Will the discovery of oil bring more benefits than harm? How can we ensure the “curse of resources” doesn’t befell us?

Click here to read the bid information. The following map shows current and new exploration areas:

Tanzania plans to increase access to electricity from the current 10% of the population (current population is 39 million) to 25% within 6 years . According to Minister of Energy and Minerals, Nazir Karamagi, the goal of 25% electrification has been pushed forward from 2010 to “2012 or 2013” due to “some delays”.

Currently, the country generates 744 megawatts (MW) (561 from hydropower, 183 from natural gas), with additional 200 MW expected by end of year 2008. Annual electricity demand is expected to rise to more than 1,100 MW by 2010.

Minister of Trade, Industry and Marketing, Hon. Basil Mramba, today made what he termed as “the first official public announcement” that the Tanzanian Government will now allow private energy companies to distibute power in the country.

Speaking at the 2nd annual Tanzania Investment Forum in New York, Minister Mramba said that the move will effectively end TANESCO’s long held monopoly in power distribution. “From now on, any qualified company will be able to apply for licence to generate and sell electricity to the market”. Minister Mramba added that what remains is the official passage of the law which is currenty being prepared. The added that the amendment is expected to be tabled in the Bunge sometime this year in November at the earliest or by April of 2008.

Since early 1990’s, private power companies in the country have been generating their own electricity using gas and diesel fired turbines but were required by law to sell only to TANESCO, the Government owned power utility company. In recent years, few exemptions where given to mining and gas companies to generate and distribute power for their own use to support local operations. Today’s announcement, however, will open the field to more players from inside and outside the country to add power to the National grid and supplement TANESCO’s role of distributing electricity to urban and rural consumers. In recent years, due to various reasons such as economic and population growth as well as structural problems, TANESCO had been unable to cope with the rising demand for electricity in the market. For this reason, the liberalization of power distribution had been lobbied for a long time by the businesses and consumers alike as one of the panaceas to the power crisis in the country.

In other major news today, the board of directors of Millenium Challenge Corporation have approved a $698 million Millennium Challenge Compact to Tanzania to reduce poverty, stimulate economic growth, and increase household incomes through targeted infrastructure investments in transport, energy, and water.